Round 22 – Fremantle v Richmond: Posting the ton

 

How important is a 100 point win?

 

When you’re so far in front, does it really matter that you grind your opponent into the dirt to get to that three figure margin?

 

As the last seconds played out at Domain Stadium on Sunday and the Dockers managed to gift Richmond a couple of late goals to concede defeat by 104 points, these were the questions swirling in my mind.

 

To put it in perspective, it’s a rare conundrum for Richmond supporters to ponder, as it’s an experience we’ve only had six times since our 1980 Premiership, including this match.  The other five comprise: two against the fledgling GWS in 2013 and 2014; one against Fitzroy on its 1996 deathbed; another against Fitzroy as they imploded at the end of the 1988 season; and, one against St Kilda early in 1985 in a sequence of three consecutive hundred point losses by the hapless Saints. In truth, none of those results could be said to mean much.

 

But Fremantle is surely a better side than any of the above. Admittedly they have had a few big beltings this year, but they’ve won 8 games and the way they started the game seemed to signify some resolve to send off their old home ground in style. To have stared down Freo’s early pressure and responded as well as Richmond did must surely count for something. And to have finally finished off a side mercilessly seemed like a very blunt statement to the teams chasing the Tigers for fourth spot.

 

I think this is the nub of the argument for the affirmative. The best sides finish off their opposition. The scoring patterns in our game make the 100 point margin psychologically and physically hard to achieve and, therefore, rare. It requires both a high level of talent and hunger to push on to this margin when the game is long since over. In contrast with the six 100 point wins Richmond have scored in 37 seasons since 1980, we achieved four in that Premiership year alone. That was one talented, hungry team. These days, the Tigers have been so glad of any big wins that they tend to enter celebration mode early rather than punching out a huge margin. One could have forgiven them for doing so again on Sunday, but they didn’t.

 

Of course, the case for the negative is that only the poorest of opponents or those severely lacking in spirit allow themselves to lose by 100 points. Again, a glance at Richmond’s own egregious record in this regard shows a deplorable 19 century defeats since 1980. Sure, plenty of these losses were to top teams but quite a lot weren’t. Scattered fairly evenly from 1984 to that horrible loss in Sydney at the end of 2016, they are a damning testimony to our wretched history since the early 80s.

 

Given that this was their second consecutive loss of this size, the Dockers certainly have to be seriously questioned. Were the Tigers simply playing a team that has given up for the year? They bore little resemblance to the side that edged us at the MCG in May.

 

Ultimately, no serious Richmond supporter will want to stray too far from the old clichés of “glad to get the four points” and “take it one week at a time.” Especially with so much weighing on our one remaining game before the finals. But the Tiger army has experienced this rare result just six times in their last 829 outings. It’s worth savouring for a couple of days, surely?